For the past two years, nurses have presented candid, even brutally honest appraisals of medical device packaging during the HealthPack Event. Watch for more of the same at HealthPack 2011, a conference for medical device packaging, March 8 – 10 at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati.
Jennifer Neid Benolken, CPP, packaging entineer, Cardiovascular Div., St. Jude Medical, will serve as the facilitator for “Voice of the Customer – Part III, in which nurses will review submitted package designs. Along with Jennifer Blocher, medical device applications specialist, Medical Applications Div., Sealed Air Corp., Benolken will present results of the third-annual HealthPack survey. Other highlights of the event include the following:
• Keynote speaker Tom Blaige, chairman and CEO, Blaige & Co., will deliver insights into trends, the future, successes, disasters, and driving forces behind acquisitions in the medical device packaging supplier world.
• The Michigan State University Learning & Assessment Center and its Healthcare Packaging Immersion Experience, will be introduced by Mary Kay Smith, RN, director of the Center, and by Jane Severin, PhD, director of technology, Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging. Students and educators from various MSU colleges will evaluate and optimize the performance of healthcare devices and packages for the future using a simulated operating room.
• MSU’s Laura Bix, PhD, associate professor at the university’s school of packaging, will describe her research on the human factors and the impact on aseptic presentation of sterile medical products as it relates to package design.
• The 2010 Medical Design & Manufacturing Medical Design Excellence Award presentation will feature Sarah Grare, global director of packaging innovations, Stryker Orthopaedics, discussing the company’s Universal Orthopaedic Implant SkinPack Package System.
Modified atmosphere packaging for medical devices, sustainability and medical device packaging, the new ASTM Intl. Standard Practice for Climatic Stressing of Packaging Systems for Single Parcel Delivery, European Union package testing, sterile barrier system materials--stability testing, and an update on various global medical packaging standards will also be discussed through presentations.
